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Edge of Evil

The end of her high-profile broadcasting career came too soon for TV journalist Alison Reynolds - bounced off the air by executives who wanted a "younger face". With a divorce from her cheating husband of 10 years also pending, there is nothing keeping her in L.A. any longer.

Random Acts: A Joanna Brady and Ali Reynolds Novella

Sheriff Joanna Brady has a lot on her plate - she is up for reelection as sheriff and pregnant with her third child, and her eldest is packing up to leave for college. Then Joanna is woken in the middle of the night by a call reporting a motor vehicle accident. Her mother and stepfather's RV ran off the road at high speed and hit the pillar of an overpass. Something about the accident seems suspicious, though, and when Joanna gets a call from Ali Reynolds, a journalist turned investigator, she accepts her offer to help.

Desert Heat

A cop lies dying beneath the blistering Arizona sun - a local lawman who may well have become the next sheriff of Cochise County. The police brass claim that Andy Brady was dirty, and that his shooting was a suicide attempt. Joanna Brady, his devoted wife and mother of their nine-year-old daughter, knows a cover-up when she hears one...and murder when she sees it.

Downfall: A Brady Novel of Suspense

With a baby on the way, sudden deaths in the family from which to recover, a reelection campaign looming, and a daughter heading off for college, Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady has her hands full when a puzzling new case hits her department, demanding every resource she has at her disposal.

Hour of the Hunter

A brutal, psychopathic murderer is released from prison - and stalks his prey with intent to kill.

Marion says:"Hour of the Hunter"

Publisher's Summary

A thrilling mystery from New York Times best-selling author J.A. Jance starring Ali Reynolds, who finds herself working against the police to clear two innocent names...with deadly stakes.

In Deadly Stakes, police-academy-trained former reporter Ali Reynolds is contacted to investigate the grisly murder of a gold-digging divorcee on behalf of a woman accused of the crime. Lynn Martinson is dating the dead woman's ex-husband, and she and her boyfriend, Chip Ralston, have been charged.

Ali is simultaneously drawn to the case of A. J. Sanders, a frightened teen with secrets of his own. He's the first to find the body in the Camp Verde desert when he goes to retrieve a mysterious buried box hidden by his absent father - a box that turns out to be filled with hundreds of thousands of dollars in poker chips.

When the body of an ex-con is discovered near the first crime scene, Ali struggles to determine if A.J. and Lynn's cases are related. Though her friends in the police department grow increasingly irritated by her involvement with the cases, Ali must stop a deadly killer from claiming another victim - before she herself is lost in this game of deadly stakes.

I gave the story 3 stars as it is an average who done it book. J. A. Jance is a good writer and the story held my interesting as well as provided suspense. Ali had been finishing up working on her Mothers election campaign for the mayor's office. She is called to do investigative reporting for the Mother of a women accused of killing her boyfriend ex-wife. While police were working the crime scene they find a man's murder. Ali is off on both cases and conflicts with Dave (dep. sheriff) a friend and former boy friend. The suspense and "who done it" of the cases keeps building and it is hard to stop listening long enough to attend to vital chores. Karen Ziemba again narrates the story and does a good job. If you like J.A. Jance and/or mystery stories you will enjoy this book.

Yes. I would give a bit more thought to wrapping up the mystery of A. J.'s father's murder. The author's solution seemed contrived, as though J. A. Jance was more concerned about meeting a deadline than she was about writing an elegant solution to that side of the story.

If you’ve listened to books by J. A. Jance before, how does this one compare?

Somewhere below the middle.

Have you listened to any of Karen Ziemba’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Karen does a good job. However, she, like other narrators, tends to butcher the pronunciation of some Spanish words.

Could you see Deadly Stakes being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?